Document eight
Rationing in Dartford during the war
There was strict rationing of all necessities - food and clothing. Ration books were issued and each family registered with one grocer and one butcher. Rations were tight and had to last a certain time. Occasionally word went round that the 'Bacon Shop' in Market Street had a consignment of wild rabbits delivered. Women with toddlers and babies in prams queued for hours in all weathers to get a rabbit to eke out the meat rations. The queue would stretch from the shop, where two girls were working as fast as they could skinning and gutting the rabbits, right round the corner and along the High Street. The rabbit was taken home, chopped and stewed with home grown vegetables.
Clothes too were rationed. Everyone had a book of coupons. It was up to the housewife how they were spent. Nothing was wasted. Knitted garments that were tatty or outgrown were unpicked - the wool washed and re-knitted into something-else. There were no coupons for curtains - they came out of the clothing coupons. Only blackout material could be bought. Sometimes we were able to beg some butter or cheese muslin from the grocer or mutton cloth that meat carcasses had been wrapped in, from the butcher. This was washed and boiled until it was reasonably white - then dipped in Dolly Tint (dye) and made up into net curtains.
All available space was dug up and turned into allotments or vegetable gardens. Some people kept chickens to get a few eggs. The cockerels were fattened up for eating. They were fed on boiled up potato peelings and anything going - table scraps etc.
Toys for the children were unobtainable so they were passed on one to the other. Dolls were knitted from old wool and stuffed with unravelled wool that was of no further use.
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF E. GARRETT (DARTFORD)